Privacy Policy

Information we collect

On-device data

SudoKew stores your gameplay progress, puzzle history, statistics, and preferences locally on your device. This data is created and used entirely on the device; we do not receive or have access to it.

Crash and stability reporting

SudoKew uses Google's Firebase Crashlytics to report crashes and stability problems, so that faults which only appear on real devices can be found and fixed. Reporting is active in the published app and cannot be turned off from within it.

When the app crashes, the report sent to Crashlytics contains:

• the crash itself: the stack trace, or for a crash in the app's native code, a memory dump of the crashing thread,
• device and operating-system information collected by Crashlytics (model, manufacturer, operating-system version, language, whether the device is low on memory), together with an installation identifier that Crashlytics generates for this installation of the app,
• a diagnostic snapshot the app attaches: the app version, the screen, puzzle mode and difficulty that were open, how long the session had been running, how many frames had been drawn, the identification strings your device's graphics driver reports, and a session number generated from the device clock.

The diagnostic snapshot is about the app and the device, not about you. We do not attach your name, your email address, your advertising identifier, your location, or the contents of your puzzles to it.

Advertising

SudoKew shows rewarded video advertisements, served by Google AdMob, and only when you choose to watch one. There are two such moments, and only these two:

• your hint budget for the current puzzle is empty and you choose to watch an advertisement to restore it,
• you have lost a board on your last mistake and you choose to watch an advertisement to carry on with one mistake left.

Each is offered at most once per puzzle. SudoKew displays no banner advertisements and no advertisements between screens, and nothing ever plays unless you tap to watch it. Google's Mobile Ads SDK is not started when the app starts: it is kept off the startup path deliberately.

The advertisement is fetched before it is offered to you, not after you accept it. When you open a puzzle in which one of the two offers above could appear, Google's Mobile Ads SDK requests an advertisement from Google in advance, so that it is ready the moment you ask for it - an offer to watch something that has not been fetched yet is an offer that fails. This means the request is made when the puzzle opens, and again at the moment one of the two offers above first becomes available on a puzzle you already have open - when your last hint is spent, or when a board is lost. Both of those happen whether or not you go on to watch anything.

A request is also made at a third point, and it is the only one that follows something you do. An advertisement that has been waiting a long time stops being valid, so if the one already fetched for you is more than about fifty minutes old at the moment you tap to watch, SudoKew discards it and requests a fresh one before showing you anything. The only difference you see is a few seconds of waiting.

Each of these requests carries your device's advertising identifier - a resettable identifier that Android provides for this purpose - together with information about your device, the app, and the advertisement returned. Google uses it to select and deliver the advertisement, to measure it, and to detect invalid activity. We do not receive your advertising identifier ourselves, and we do not combine advertising data with your gameplay data.

None of this happens unless the consent step below permits it. If you decline, no request is made at any of the three points described above and your advertising identifier is not sent at all.

Advertising consent

SudoKew establishes your advertising choice the first time you open it after accepting this policy: straight after you accept, if you are accepting it now, or on the next launch after an update, if you accepted an earlier version of it. Either way you are asked once, and it happens before any advertisement is requested.

It does this through Google's User Messaging Platform. Where the law requires it - the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland among them - this shows you a consent form and records the choice you make. This consent step is the one piece of Google advertising code that may run while the app is starting up, and it does no more than establish your choice: it requests no advertisement and loads none.

If you decline, or if the consent step cannot complete for any reason, SudoKew requests no advertisements at all. The game stays fully playable: every puzzle can be finished without watching anything, the hint budget is a convenience rather than a requirement, and declining removes the two offers described above and nothing else.

Wherever you are, you can also limit advertising through your device's own settings, where Android lets you reset or delete your advertising identifier and opt out of personalised advertising.

How we use information

We use crash and stability reports only to diagnose faults, to understand which devices and graphics drivers are affected, and to fix them. We do not use them to build a profile of you, we do not use them for advertising, and we do not sell them.

Advertising data is used to select, deliver and measure the rewarded advertisements SudoKew fetches for you, whether or not you go on to watch one, and to keep the app funded. That processing is Google's, not ours; we do not see your advertising identifier, and we never link advertising to your puzzles, your progress or your crash reports.

On-device gameplay data is used only to provide app functionality and remains under your control on the device.

Sharing with third parties

Crash and stability reports are processed by Google LLC on our behalf through Firebase Crashlytics, under Google's terms for that service and as described in Google's Privacy Policy. Google processes this data to provide the service to us.

Advertising requests are processed by Google LLC through Google AdMob, also under Google's Privacy Policy and the Google AdMob privacy notice. Unlike crash reporting, Google acts on its own account here as well as ours: it uses the advertising identifier and the request data to select and measure advertisements. This happens when you open a puzzle in which an advertisement could be offered, and again when one of those offers first appears on a puzzle you already have open, rather than only when you watch one, and only if the consent step above permits it.

We do not share your data with anyone other than Google as described above, and we do not sell it.

Legal bases for processing (EEA, UK, Switzerland)

We rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR and equivalent laws:

• Legitimate interests for crash and stability reporting, which is what allows us to keep the app working on the wide range of devices it runs on. We limit this to diagnostic information and do not use it to identify you.
• Performance of a contract to provide the SudoKew application functionality you have requested.
• Consent for advertising, gathered through the consent form described above before any advertisement is requested. Without consent, no advertisement is requested and the game remains fully playable.

To withdraw consent once given: the choice is recorded on your device, so clearing the app's data or reinstalling the app clears it, and you will be asked again the next time you open SudoKew. The app has no separate in-app control for this today. Your device's advertising settings are a different control and not a substitute: they let you opt out of personalised advertising and reset your advertising identifier, but they do not erase the consent recorded here.

Your rights

EEA, UK, and Switzerland

If you are located in the EEA, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you,
• request correction of inaccurate data,
• request erasure of your data,
• restrict or object to processing,
• request portability of your data,
• lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.

To exercise these rights, contact us at the address in the Contact section. Please note that crash reports are not linked to your name or account, so we may need further information from you to locate a particular report - and in some cases we may be unable to locate one at all. Uninstalling the app, or clearing its data, removes the local installation identifier and ends collection from that installation.

California

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the CPRA, gives you the right to:

• know what personal information is collected, used, shared, or sold,
• access and obtain a copy of your personal information,
• request correction or deletion of your personal information,
• limit the use of sensitive personal information,
• not be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

We do not sell personal information for money. Passing your advertising identifier to Google so that it can select a personalised advertisement may count as sharing for cross-context behavioural advertising under that law, so we treat it as such rather than argue the point. You can stop it by opting out of personalised advertising in your device's advertising settings, which the advertising SDK honours, and you can also reset or delete the identifier there. To exercise your other rights, contact us at the address below.

International transfers

Crash and stability reports, and advertising requests, may be transferred to and processed in countries outside your country of residence, including the United States. Google relies on safeguards approved under applicable data-protection law, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, for these transfers.

Data retention

On-device data is retained on your device until you clear app data or uninstall the app. Crash and stability reports are retained by Firebase Crashlytics in accordance with Google's published retention periods for that service. Advertising data is retained by Google in accordance with its own published retention periods; we hold no copy of it.

Security

We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures appropriate to the limited data we process. Crash and stability reports are sent over an encrypted connection and are protected by Google's own security controls once received.

Children

SudoKew is not directed at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal information through the app, contact us and we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Updated versions are released with new versions of the app, and the "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent change.

Contact

Afrispel
Email: contact@afrispel.com